Jack, the person at the center of the controversy,
has no biography. He is not even given a last name.
We know nothing about him. Was he already DeLancey's
slave when DeLancey fled New York? Was Jack born
into slavery, or was he abducted from Africa? Did
he have family? How old was he? What work did he
do for DeLancy, and later for Woodin? Why did he
run away from DeLancey? History is silent on the
life of Jack, and the only concern the "several
gentlemen of the law" have with him is whether
or not he is the property of James
DeLancey.

DeLancey's 1803 complaint against Woodin describes
him as "one Jack a Negro man ...lawfully retained
in the service of the said James DeLancey as his
slave and servant, to serve him the said James DeLancey,
for and during the natural life of the said Jack...".
The Negro slave Jack, on May 26, 1800, "...wilfully
and without the leave or licence and against the
will of the said James DeLancey departed and absented
himself from and left the service of the said James
DeLancey and went in to the service of the said
William Woodin...". Jack himself is not accused
of anything other than leaving without permission,
nor is he said to have broken any law; property
cannot be accused of breaking the law. Jack is nowhere
in either document deemed ultimately responsible
for his actions; it is William Woodin who is accused
of detaining Jack and refusing to return him, not
Jack of refusing to return. The very nature of the
legal action taken against Woodin shows Jack's relationship
to DeLancey; trover
is a legal action taken against someone who has
found another's lost property and refuses to return
it.

William Woodin seems
to have seen things differently. Not only did he
take in the runaway Jack and employ him for wages,
but he also refused DeLancey's demand that his "property"
be returned, saying that Jack was not a slave since
there was no Law in Nova Scotia to make him one.
He continued to resist DeLancey's demands for at
least the next three years.

It is quite possible that Jack was DeLancey's slave
in New York, where the DeLancey family had its home
before the American Revolutionary War forced them
to flee to Nova Scotia. He may have been brought
to Nova Scotia along with the rest of DeLancey's
moveable property in 1783; records show that DeLancey
had slaves when he arrived. As valuable property
that would be difficult to replace in Nova Scotia,
DeLancey would likely have been reluctant to leave
Jack behind.

DeLancey certainly thought of Jack as valuable property;
in the first judgement in DeLancey vs. Woodin, the
judge awarded DeLancey 70 pounds in damages, a significant
amount at the time. Three years later DeLancey claimed
damages of an astonishing 500 pounds, making Jack
very valuable property indeed.

In the end, Jack appears to have won out over DeLancey;
after DeLancey died in 1804, Jack was not listed
as property in the records of the DeLancey estate.